Vibrancy

 “During the dark night there is no choice but to surrender control, give in to unknowing, and stop and listen to whatever signals of wisdom might come along. It’s a time of enforced retreat and perhaps unwilling withdrawal. The dark night is more than a learning experience; it’s a profound initiation into a realm that nothing in the culture, so preoccupied with external concerns and material success, prepares you for.”
― Thomas Moore, Dark Nights of the Soul: A Guide to Finding Your Way Through Life's Ordeals

 

Life is not just all about body, although some days, weeks, maybe months, feels like it, as we age.  We have to pay attention to the other segments of our lives:  intellectual, emotional and Spiritual, in balance, not focusing on one area, and simply get through this.  

Our body has paid for our choices, for being born with a certain DNA, and it has its own way of expressing all the other segments.  It is our vehicle for/of life.  Yeah, yeah, healthy diet, healthy exercise, smart choices, healthy dealing with issues, including stress is part of it.  We have worn this skeletal, muscle, elastic skin near torn to shreds.  Our body has been at attention every second since it was formed.  We have added a great deal of hypertension to it all with the way we act/react, the way we over-prepared our body for stuff that simply did not need to be.  Every joint has been misused at some point, of course, it is wearing down.  We do not treat it all that gently until pain comes into the arena, then, it is near too late to try to change that now.  I, for one, have not forced myself to rest when I should ( used to have five minute power naps, as Marg will attest).  I do not take time to rest my joints, my muscles, and spent enough time out in nature where I could revive my skin to nature kind of rest. I have not controlled my very breathing in that I am a shallow breather and forget to take good cleansing breaths.  And, yes, now I take medications for my heart, my joints, my sleep, my nerves...oh, lord have mercy, wasn't I a proud one to be able to say, until 70, that I did not have to take anything?  Yah, karma.  And, I have learned that makeup is not maintenance.  

Ourt minds will go.  They will, and our genetics will set a course and we can delay it or sharpen it, but it will go.  I, again, for one, have filled my brain with such ridiculous things.  I have little black spots of worry, in there.. ok, huge spots.  I am resilient, and that is a good thing.  I bounce back when I need to, want to, make myself do so.  None of us are dummies.  We knew we needed to be lifelong learners.  If we isolate ourselves socially, physically, intellectually, we can get some brain-rot happening int hat we will not be as resilient, vibrant, and have some joy de vive.  We fuss about diets, but do we fuss about what we feed our minds?  I am still curious, seek new ways to see old things, try to be flexible, and refuse to stagnate.  When the body goes, the brain can do a great deal to be optimistic, to have that resilience needed every danged day.  Oh, there are going to be bigger and better challenges for our brain to figure out solutions too.  Best we keep that sharp.  Best we inquire, we study, we come to resolutions, we seek newer choices and alternatives.  Our brain is where our passions lie.  Make the most of them the most we can.

And, then, of course, the emotional:  We put so much weight on that section and it affects every other area of who we are.  Life offers up normal stresses, extreme stresses, grief, horror, joy, peace, comfort...all the emotions we could ever have. We seem to focus in on things, way too much, and give the emotions way too much power over the rest of us.  Yes, we get sad, but, lord have mercy, that is not all there is to it.  Yes, we can be needy, but we forget we have every answer within. We get stressed when physical, intellectual and spiritual needs are not met.  Bottom line.  Yes, we focus in on our Ego shame, guilt, resentments, jealousies, until it is like we ate nothing but carrots for half our life and now we have orange skin from the carotene.  At some point, we simply have to get over the petty stuff and get on with living these last years to their fullest.  I do not want to die with need, with regrets, in my heart.  So many times I have let stress be my guide.  It was not a good idea.  I am still packing some heavy weight that I should have put down years ago and I am learning to dump that stuff in the ditches as I go, now.  We need to care for our emotional segment like we would a new batch of motherless puppies, a garden, an abandoned baby, a terrarium of rare orchids.  We, somehow, need to get to a point where the vibrations of the ether is affected by our positivity and we are affected by it.  We are bits of our beliefs, our desires, our values, our wounds and our healings.  We have to really focus on INTENDING to be positive, to find peace, to make peace. Getting older does not mean we will have less vigor and vitality.  We make sure we find ways to build balance in all areas and we will respond, our bones, our tissue, our heart and soul will align to what we allow our self to feel.

The final segment to care for is our Spirit segment.  The connection of Spirituality (not religion) is of extreme importance as it connects to every area as well. (Think Medicine Wheel).  It is the very core of energy, of intelligence, of emotions.  If we have not been, nor are not NOW, developing that, our lives will be full of body, mind, and heart dysfunction.  Somehow we have to have all things in harmony.  No one can do this for us.  No one is in charge of this area...but US.  I remember reading Thomas Moore's "Care of the Soul" many years ago..decades ago.  

note:  follow this link to some quotes from his book, at the very least.  It is powerful reading and thought-provoking.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1495208 
 -Thomas_Moore

I find facebook to be a place where I happen upon some inspiration that feeds my soul.  What fits, I keep and make part of me, and what does not fit, I let fall to the wayside.  We talk about drained energy, thinking it is only affecting our emotions.. ah, imagine what the soul is feeling. Think of when you have had epiphanies.  Think of those moments of Aw, Ah, and AWE.  Those are soul moments.  Take time to let the world go its way.  Take time to set your mind to task and start sorting out things you think about, disconnected from emotion.  Take time to find the keys to your emotions.  Seek the positive, seek to gather with those who feed your soul, seek palces that feed your soul.  Do not think that anything from the way you have always done things is the right way.  Are you soulfully happy?  Then it did not work, did it.  This is a huge thing for me as I try to eliminate my old responses to thing, my old way of acting and reacting.  It has not worked for me, always.  But, I do remember the times it did, when I was beyond emotional joy.  Those are what we should seek to feed our souls;  those activities, those connections to your friends, neighbors, community, area, Universe.  Seek more than peace and comfort, because most of us have made decisions thinking we could find peace and comfort (greener grass theories) and found out later, it did not.  Seek authentic soul food.  The soul will always tell you what it needs.

Aging is not an option.  Fading is not an option.  Crumbling is not an option.  Change is an option!  Pay attention to all areas.  We have to find a harmonic balance.  I think the only way we can do this is to connect with others.  We never know when we are teachers.  We never know when we are learners.  

 “You're not horrible, Kelsey. You are vibrant and beautiful, and you burn. Burn so vividly. Fires can damage, but they're also beautiful and vital and they can purify and give the chance for a fresh start. You're not horrible. Not at all.”
― Cora Carmack, Finding It

Find vibrancy.  Be vibrant, sister-friends.  It matters not to just one, it matters to all things.

 Steps:

Inks and a straw

©Carol Desjarlais 2.26.20